Campaign contribution bills fail

Saturday

Apr 19, 2014 at 11:34 AM

NASHVILLE — In the waning moments of the 108th General Assembly, the House killed a bill allowing state senators to collect more money for their campaigns, while the Senate shortly afterwards killed a bill that would put new restrictions on candidate loans to campaigns.

NASHVILLE — In the waning moments of the 108th General Assembly, the House killed a bill allowing state senators to collect more money for their campaigns, while the Senate shortly afterwards killed a bill that would put new restrictions on candidate loans to campaigns.

"I would not call it retaliation. I would call it holding up our end of the bargain," Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey told reporters afterwards.

Ramsey had hoped for enactment of HB643 by House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, which, as amended, would have doubled the amount of money state Senate candidates can accept over a four-year term in office

As things stand now, a candidate for the Legislature can raise a maximum of $112,300 per election, or $224,600 for a primary and general combined, from political action committees. The limit is the same for representatives, who have two-year terms, and senators who have four-year terms.

The bill would have put senators on a two-year cycle, just like representatives. Casada called it "letting them (senators) reset every two years."

Thus, in a senator’s four-year term, he or she under the bill could take in twice as much in PAC money and ask individuals to contribute the maximum amount, $1,500 per election, twice rather than once during a four-year period. Ramsey said the current law "doesn’t make sense to me."

He said Casada told him the measure had only a "50-50 chance" of passage in the House and he replied "50-50?… Let’s find out."

The bill faced a round of sharp criticism in House floor debate and wound up getting just 17 yes votes, two of them from House Speaker Beth Harwell and Casada and most of the others from Ramsey’s home area of Northeast Tennessee. There were 62 no votes.

Over in the Senate, Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, had been holding off a vote on the House-approved bill dealing with campaign loans. When word of the House vote on the Ramsey-backed bill arrived, Bell withdrew the bill, effectively killing it as the session adjourned.

That bill, sponsored by Knoxville Republican Rep. Bill Dunn in the House, put a $100,000 limit on the amount candidates can loan their campaigns and then, after election, repay themselves. In effect, any self-financing above $100,000 would be treated as a direct donation to the campaign. The bill also would prohibit candidates charging interest on loans to their campaigns.

Harwell said she thought the bill was "one step we could constitutionally take" to have an impact on the trend of "too much money in politics." Ramsey said he thought the bill could deter "the moderately rich" from seeking office. While multimillionaries such as Gov. Bill Haslam and former Gov. Phil Bredesen can afford to donate large sums directly to their campaigns, the "moderately rich," which the speaker said are those "worth two or three million," would like to loan their campaigns money with an expectation of repayment.

The situation was reminiscent of an end-of-session dispute last year, wherein the House killed a bill sought by Ramsey and the Senate killed a bill sought by Harwell. In something of a contrast to last year, however, both speakers characterized this year’s dispute as a low-level disagreement among friends.